Author: Michael Grant
It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared.
Gone.
It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living: Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness-or so they thought.
As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?
447 pages. 12 hours. Minus the times that I left to go to lunch with my family. Minus the time I spent searching for the keys to my dad's truck (which my mom seems to have accidentally forgotten to take them out of her purse when she went down to Texas this morning). And minus the times that I spent inspecting the gorgeous handwriting that my best friend put ALL over my car for my birthday. So 8-9 hours, possibly? That's how long I spent reading this book today.
If you've read any of my Twitter things lately, you already know I have been looking forward to the newest novel in the Gone series (and if you haven't been paying attention, first of all, now you know, and second of all, you should definitely follow me. =D). And let me tell you, I was not disappointed.
I was hooked from the very first sentence, all the way to the last one. When I was forced to put the book down, I was a VERY unhappy camper. It was just so exciting throughout the whole thing.
What was really great about it was the unpredictability of the novel. Usually, I'm pretty good at guessing what's going to happen, just because I read so much in general, and so many authors seem to be incapable of writing anything that doesn't sound like something else that's already been written. However, this is most definitely NOT the case with Michael Grant. I only had ONE correct prediction, and it doesn't really even count, because I was half wrong at the same time. That is majorly impressive.
And as with the other two books in the series, I loved how realistic the characters were, even the ones that had crazy powers. All of them were complex enough to be real people. They had their good qualities and bad qualities. Astrid, for example, while she does remain Astrid the Genius, proves that while she's theoretically the best person to lead the FAYZ, she doesn't manage to pull it off due to her failure to work with the team to accomplish what needs to be done. Diana also shows that even though she's on the side of bad boy Caine, she actually is a good person.
I love the writing style. The dialog is mostly perfect and completely appropriate for each individual character. A lot of authors have problems with that, in my opinion, and all the dialog sounds like the same person could be saying each thing. Also, I love the little humor that's added into it. When the book gets really intense, sure enough, a joke will come up in the perfect spot. Grant performs an amazing balancing act!
I must admit, however, that I was very confused at some points in the book, especially with the whole Drake/Brittney thing, but that's how Grant set it up, I think. Everything that was supposed to make sense at the end, did. However, there were of course, the new mysteries that were brought out. Like what's behind the FAYZ wall, for example. Were Orsay and Little Pete right that the parents lay just outside, watching and waiting for the children? And what exactly happened to Mother Mary? I have a feeling that her story isn't over yet. But I believe there's going to be six or seven total books in this series, and this is only number three, so there's plenty of time to learn all the answers.
The only bad thing I thought was that Michael Grant definitely needs to get a better proofreader. I swear, punctuation and spelling mistakes are my pet peeves when I'm reading. However, that still didn't detract from the general awesomeness of the book. =D
So, as you can tell, I LOVED IT. End of story. I mean, if you knew me and what I normally read, you would NEVER think that I would like this book at all. These books are the only sci-fi ones that I like. I just generally don't enjoy sci-fi books, so I give major kudos to Michael Grant. And I must say that I don't hate looking at the cover. Sam is a very, very nice looking man. =D
Anyways, the plan was to finish reading Dear John since I ditched it to reread the Gone series. However, I was supposed to move today, but that didn't happen, so all of my books are currently in storage. =C But I bought Jane Austen's Emma yesterday, so I'm going to read that. And while it is going to be my first time reading it, I'm not sure if I want to take on reviewing a classic.... So I probably won't do a review for it. Therefore, I have no idea what book I'll be writing about next, but I'll update my Twitter account and you can see my latest 3 (?) Twitter posts on the right hand side of the page, so you can keep updated there. =D Or you could just follow me. =D And, as always, please feel free to comment about anything! I love comments!
Anyways, thanks for reading!
Love,
Kristi
